1. Public Opinion: Divided by Race?
Chapter 10

2. Public Opinion Overview
Collective opinions of large segments of the population on an issue, candidate, or public policy on which the public might be divided and lack consensus
Presidents are often concerned with conforming to or swaying public opinion

3. Political Culture and Public Opinion
Political culture: Attitudes, beliefs, and values that are at the foundation of a political system

4. Political Culture and Public Opinion
Political socialization
Family
Friends
Schools

5. Expressions of Public Opinion
Political participation
Voting
Writing to elected officials, newspapers, blogs
Participation in demonstrations
Online ballots

6. Measuring Public Opinion
Survey research: Administration of questionnaires to a sample of respondents selected from a population, useful for making descriptive and explanatory studies of large populations
Public opinion polls conducted by universities, commercial polling organizations, and news organizations

7. The Mechanics of Polling
How the sample is drawn
Sampling
Quota
Probability
Sampling error
Question wording

9. The Mechanics of Polling
When a question is asked within the survey
When data are gathered
2016 presidential primaries
How data are gathered

11. Race, Gender, and Public Opinion
Traditional understandings of American public opinion were developed based on survey research that did not incorporate the opinions of racial and ethnic minorities
With increasing racial and ethnic minority populations in the United States, it is increasingly necessary to understand the opinions of these groups

12. Race, Gender, and Public Opinion
Public opinion is directly influenced by histories of and continuing racism and discrimination
There are a great deal of differences in public opinion based on race, such as differences concerning social policy

13. Race, Gender, and Public Opinion
Race (cont.)
The media often paints Blacks as liberal because of their support for the Democratic Party; however, many Blacks have socially conservative views
Liberal versus conservative ideological designations do not necessarily mean much in terms of race

14. “Evaluating Equality: Differences in Perception of Racism against Black Americans”

16. Race, Gender, and Public Opinion
Gender gap
Presidential support
Differences at the intersection of race and gender
Social and political contexts in which women find themselves influence their public opinion formation

19. Race, Gender, and Public Opinion
Demographic factors
Education
Region
Religion

20. Race, Gender, and Public Opinion
Partisan identification
2016 Republican and Democratic parties
The media
Television
News programs
Entertainment programs

21. “Where People Get Their Campaign News”

22. The Bradley Effect
Bradley/Wilder effect: The difference between how Black candidates poll and how they perform at the ballot box
Influence of racial attitudes on White voting patterns

23. Public Opinion and Politics
Public opinion can:
Reflect the degree of public support for government actions
Serve to check political leadership
Serve as motivation for campaign strategies
Provide a gauge of how people feel about government and its institutions